Excellent, thank you both!

Melinda

"kilburn" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Major Korean department stores all have a wide variety of Korean teas
> on sale in the tea sections of their food departments (invariably one
> of the basement level floors). Assuming your friend is visiting Seoul,
> she could explore the Lotte Department Store in Myong Dong (central
> Seoul and the city's main shopping area).
> Many Korean green teas are similar to Japanese green teas, and some are
> made from Japanese tea plants and processed Japanese-style.
> However you can also find exquisite hand-made teas produced using
> traditional techniques in very old tea gardens that are part of
> Buddhist temples. These can be very expensive, partly because the
> volumes made are quite small - but they are much closer to Korea's tea
> making traditions than many other offerings.
> There are also inexpensive blends of green tea with barley or other
> grains - these are often imported from China.
>
> David
>


"There are a lot of small tea houses in fashionable areas of Seoul, Pusan
and
probably any other city. They serve tea with a sweet and also sell teaware
and tea leaves. It's nice to buy there or just go to relax.
Anyway, their tea leaves are expensive as they only produce higher grades in
limited quantities, and the rest systematically becomes tea bags or is mixed
as genmaicha. Many times, I have seen cheaper teas, but when I asked, the
shopkeeper has explained me it was imported.
Many of the "teas" the Korean drink are herbals. In spice markets, she can
find thousands of medicinal tisanes and spice mixes to prepare the dessert
drinks (like ginger or cinnamon flavored ones) that help you to digest after
excesses of Korean food.

Tell her to also get chesnut tea (there's no tea inside) in a supermarket
(or in the Lotte duty free shop if she
goes there). It's in bags and cheap, I buy tons of that each time I go to
Korea, it's a great evening tisane.

Kuri"